BR 85 
.F53 
Copy 1 




l& 



yL-'Ci^J 



PEARLS: 






CONSISTING PRINCIPALLY OF 



ORIGINAL RELIGIOUS ARTICLES, 

By R. L. F. 



The limited space allotted the author, permitted of only a -very brief discussion of the numerous themes of 
Interest touched upon ; but it was the sole purpose and aim of the author to state, in the most concise terms , a 
few sparkling and living truths that might excite the interest and touch the hearts of those who read them. To 
those who read its pages and are in sympathy with the sentiments contained in them, this little volume is kindly 
inscribed. 












LOUISVILLE: 

HULL & BROTHER, PRINTERS AND BINDERS, FIFTH STREET. 

I 880. 



r 



PRE FAC E. 



A few years since there 'was published in New York City a 
Journal in which appeared in the main the articles comprised in this 
volume. After reading and re-reading the articles as they appeared 
from month to month in the Journal in question, we have concluded 
to publish them in book form under the title of Pearls. 

The publisher's justification for burdening the reading public with 
another book is not based upon the alleged claim that the articles 
contained in this volume are ably written, or that they are of rare lite- 
rary merit, but rather upon the claim that each article is a gem of rare 
beauty, radiant with living thought and glowing with emotional lang- 
uage. These articles are valuable when taken collectively, by reason 
of their being the thoughts of one mind and experience of one life 
reduced to language. Two minds of corresponding culture and 
brilliancy, dwelling upon the same theme, will invariably produce 
different thoughts. If the theme be of a religious nature the thoughts 
of one may find lodgment in the hearts of those who read them, 
while the thoughts of the other may produce no lasting impression. 
It is scientifically true that each brain represents an organic individ- 
uality. Dr. J, C. Bucknell, an eminent London physician who has 
made the study of the brain a specialty, remarks, "that no one brain is 
like any other brain, either through the force of inheritance from the 
parent organism, or through the influence of education or other mod- 
ifying circumstances. Every mind possesses such a peculiarity of 
the individuality in the susceptibility and strength of the organs that 
the same disturbing influences never produce in two brains the same 
pathological effect." It is said that the Poet's productions are but 
his thoughts and emotions, under the spell of inspiiation, reduced to 
language, and that the thoughts and language he employs must 
first kindle emotions in his own heart if it is to "produce any effect 
upon those who read his productious. We mentioned the experiences 
of one life, and in a general way wish to discuss this thought briefly. 

It will be seen by those who read this volume that the author 
makes frequent mention of experience ; in fact, we may say that the 
language of experience is the' golden clasp that binds together the 
pages of this little volume. The author seems to grasp the idea 
that experience is the one vital and life- imparting element in Christ- 
ian life ; or, as he has expressed it, " experience is the very soil in 
which a Christian life is sown, and that Conversion is but stumb- 
ling over the threshold of experience into the arms of Christ." A 
Christian life is dwarfed and stifled that is not all radiant with glow- 
ing experiences. The experiences of a religious life are but so many 



i 

golden steps upon which the Christian plants his feet that he may 
ascend higher into the realm of thought, purity and holiness of life. 
There are no experiences that compare with those of the Christ- 
ian — not even the Poet in the hour of rapture, when his imagination 
is kindled and exalted, and when his tongue is moved and loosened 
with inspiration and words luminous and grand flow in sweet chim- 
ing music from his entranced transfigured lips, — can form any just 
conception of the experiences that beam all radiant with Heaven's 
brightness upon the Christian pathway, and is to him a sweet 
bewilderment of wonder and joy. 

There may be found in some of the articles, in Pearls some forci- 
ble arguments against infidelity, although it was not the spirit of 
the author to treat this and kindred themes in a controversial way, 
believing as he did that truth, stated in sentiment, is more effectual ; 
or, in other words, he sought to clothe truth and make it. beautiful, 
but not to arm it. Truth is of itself a living force, but the language 
in which it is coached may add to or detract greatly from it as a liv- 
ing force. No language of an ambiguous character found its way 
into any of the articles in Pearls, as the author evidently wrote 
under the conviction that not only is there a charm about common 
place and homely language, but that it is most effectual. While the 
author of Pearls expressed his declarations of belief in bold and 
unequivocal language, and showed no disposition to shield the un- 
sheltered sins of men or to still the storm of fate that is blowing 
wild about the evil fabric of superstitious religion and false institu- 
tions, he evidently was influenced by the fact that it is not what any 
individual conscientiously believes to be right that is to determine 
the boundary line of truth, but that the thing to aim at is consist- 
ency — to get through this life without trampling upon the sublime 
verities that lie in grandeur and beauty before us. 

For the sake of variety a few articles have been admitted from 
different authors, to which the word select has been appended. We 
trust we shall have reasons to add many new and beautiful articles 
in the second edition of Pearls ; for if the sales justify it, we shall in- 
crease its size indefinitely. The publisher has no apologies to make, 
notwithstanding the fact that the articles contained in Pearls were 
never intended to be published in book form. We send this volume 
forth with the sincere wish that it may meet with approval, and that 
who ever reads it may be enriched both in mind and heart, and that 
those of its readers who have not yet begun to live the higher life 
may, through its influence and iustrumentality, be led to seek and 
find that rarest and most precious of all treasures, the Pearl of 
greatest price. R. L, F. 






PEARLS. 



THE IDEAL STANDARDS. 

There is that prophetic gift in every soul of any elevation by 
which there hangs over every step a vision of something higher, and 
better, and nobler, and sweeter and purer. Every man who is real- 
ly and fully organized on a noble pattern has hovering over him a 
vision of angels transcendantly more beautiful than any embodiment 
of it. He has conceptions of truth infinitely more grand than any 
exhibitions of truth which he sees on earth. Beauty flames in the 
heavens with colors brighter than any that can be reproduced in 
this world. How do they who attempt to fulfill the offices of friend- 
ship find every day that they sit in judgment upon themselves be- 
cause they have not half way come up to their conception of its pa- 
tience, of its disinterestedness, of its gentleness, of its faithfulness ! 

Do I need to ask you what your ideal is, ye that have sought in a 
thousand ways to reach that very conception ? The musician is 
charmed with the song that in his imagination he seems to hear the 
angels sing ; but when he attempts to write it down with his hands he 
curses the blundering rudeness of material things by which he can- 
not incarnate so spiritual a thing as his thought. It is all torn ; it 
is stripped of its plumage as it were, and reduced to captivity. The 
true orator is a man whose unspoken speech is a thousand times 
better than his utterance. The true artist is not a man who can 
look upon the thing which he has coloured and say, " It transcends 
what I saw, " but a man who says, " Oh ! if you could see what I 
saw when I first tried to make this, you would think this most home- 
ly. This excelsior of every soul ; this sense of something finer, 
and nobler, and truer, and better — so long as this lasts, a man can 
scarcely go down to vulgarism. So long as this lasts there is in 
every man a nascent inspiration which tends to look away from self 
— which certainly does not incline a man to measure himself by his 
fellow-men. It is vulgar for a man to be satisfied with himself be- 
cause he is better than his fellow-men. 

You never executed as well as you ought to execute. Over the 



2 Pearls. 

production of the scholar, over the canvas of the artist, over the 
task of the landscape gardener, over the pruner's knife, there ought 
to hover perpetually his blessed ideal, telling him, " Your work is 
poor — it should be better ; so that every day he should lift himself 
higher and higher, with an everlasting pursuit of hope which shall 
only end in perfection when he reaches the land beyond. 



EXPERIENCE ESSENTIAL TO SUCCESS IN BUSINESS. 

Experience in business is a school, in the very broadest sense of 
that term, and its different phases, and secrets, and rules, must be 
learned alphabetically, by slow, difficult, and trying processes, that 
put to the severest test our mental, moral, and physical qualities. 
Nearly all men are dashed to the earth at one time in their lives ; 
the weakest never rise, the strongest do, and are made nobler and 
better by the rough experience. 

The history of this world has been one of continual conflict, 
both personal and national, and to rise above conflict will be to rise 
from earth to Heaven. It is a divine law that we should be perfect- 
ed through experience and ordeal ; and whoever evades them, 
dwarfs his own life ; and the question that interests us is — Are we 
deriving any benefit from our rough experience in business life ? 
If we are not acquiring a competency, by our present industry and 
efforts, are we gathering that knoweledge from our experience that 
will guide us, like a beacon light, at some future time and under 
more auspicious circumstances ? 

Ninety-five per cent, of all men who engage in business fail, at 
some period in their lives, and those that come after will be 
wrecked on the very same shoals. These facts are discouraging 
in their general bearing, yet from them we are to derive the very 
elements of our strength. The recognizing and realizing of these 
facts serve to show us the amount of moral courage that is requi- 
site in undertaking a business career, and that the small chances of 
success exclude the possibility of succeeding by reckless and dar- 
ing enterprises, and that the most careful, persistent and courageous 
efforts are indispensable to the acquiring of wealth. 



CHARACTER. 

In the main, the characters we see in every day life are like the 
uncut diamond, and need all the polishing of the stone before the 
brilliant gem appears. Characters that appear to us rude and un- 
couth may be wholly changed by cultivation and refinement. In- 
dividuals rarely ever, morally and socially, rise above the plane of 
their associates. Like begets like ; and it is possible for even the 
grandest natures to become so attached to things of low estate that 
they cannot rise above them. 



Pearls. 

It is not justice to any individual to estimate upon his character 
unless we know something of his circumstances, associations and 
chances for self-improvement. Any individual who is endowed 
by nature with gifts and excellencies, and has native talents, may 
step from outside his sphere of degrading associations, and, in a 
very limited time, rise to a transcendently higher plane and sphere 
of action and usefulness. 



THE POWER OF CONVERSION. 

The indwelling of Christ in the soul, is to the soul what the 
warmth and glow of the sun in springtime is to the garden, causing 
the plants to spring up and bud and bloom in beauty and fragrance 
It is perpetual winter in the souls of those Christ has not kindled 
by His love. A religious life is one fraught with Divine impulses. 
A religious life is one of education in Divine things. With con- 
version comes a higher order of intelligence, and a truer conception 
of right and wrong than can possibly be attained in any other way. 
Conversion to Christ is the blossoming of the soul into a heavenly 
atmosphere ; it is the golden gateway to the spiritual realm. 



The fleeting moments of time are glittering gems, more radiant 
and precious than the diamonds that shed their luster around a 
crowned head. They are the threads out of which all the royalty, 
grandeur, and beauty of life is woven. They are the infinitesimal 
fragments of that everlasting cycle of ages — eternity. Oh ! voy- 
ager from earth to heaven, gather up these fragments of time as 
memorials of divine mercy and love, so that when the light of eter- 
nity breaks upon your eyes, when you awake on the shores of a 
never ending world, your disembodied soul may stand transfigured 
in Zion, before God, without any thing to fear or regret. 






LINES OF DISTINCTION. 

There is a sense in which men have a right to judge, and to draw 
lines of distinction, and even to censure their fellow men. The 
eternal destiny of men's souls hinges upon being told and taught 
the distinction between right and wrong. The world is full of men 
who have no convictions or definite conceptions of truth, and of its 
boundry lines, and who do not know right from wrong, who would 
hide the sins and faults of their fellowmen behind the mock shield 
of charity. Life is a battle between truth and falsehood, between 
righteousness and sin, between purity and crime, between temper- 
ance and intemperance, between liberty and despotism, between 



4 Pearls. 

Christ and the world. The great earth on which we dwell is the 
field of carnage. From every direction the tread of soldiers is 
heard around us. On every side the battle is fiercely waging and 
the foes of Truth are falling amid the din of conflict. Whose shall 
the conquest be ? Who shall carry forth the banner of Triumph into 
the enemies' camp ? and who shall bear away the palm of victory ? 
from whose battle camp will ascend heavenward shouts of victory 
and hosannas of praise for the final triumph ? Who are those who 
say peace, when there is no peace ? — First pure, and then peace- ( 
able. There is nothing to be gained by throwing the veil of charity; 
over the unsheltered sins of guilty men. * 

CHRIST THE CHRISTIAN'S HELP. 

The Christian and the Infidel stand on altogether different 
footings. If Christianity is true, then it is also true that the Christ- 
ian, in his efforts to live a life of purity and withstand temptation, 
is supplemented by Divine power. If Christianity is true, then it 
is also true that Christ sustains a personal relation to his people ; 
that He leads them by His unerring hand, and sustains them by 
His unfaltering arm. Arguing from this standpoint, it is inexcusa- 
ble folly in any person to compare the ability of the infidel or in- 
different man with that of the Christian, to withstand temptations 
in all their seductive and trying forms. Infidels seek to destroy the 
very ideal of an exalted manhood, when they declare that every 
man has his price, and that there is a current in the flow of tempta- 
tion that man cannot resist. 



A man who does not with a fiendish spirit and disposition assume 
the role of a reckless and daring violator of the more manly and 
Christian traits of character, may deserve some credit and praise 
for maintaining this standard of conduct and establishing this limited 
elevation of character ; but above such a standard of character there 
is an elevation upon which the true Christian lives that is transcend- > 
antly higher, nobler, and purer. 

Through the week we go down into the valley of care and shad- 
ow. Our Sabbaths should be hills of light and joy in God's pres- 
ence ; and so as time rolls by we shall go from mountain top to 
mountain top, until at last we catch the glory of the Celestial Gate, 
and enter in to go no more out forever. 

Men who grapple with and pass judgment upon the great ques- 
tions of life must have enlightened consciences and be armed with 
the sword of the Spirit of Christ, if they are to teach die world 
lessons of infinite truth, and if the conquest is to be theirs in the 
gveat battle of life. 









Pea 



RLS. 



INGERSOLL ON ALCOHOL. 

The ministers of the Gospel, who have any Christianity at all 
about them, heartily endorse the Temperance movement. So do 
the intelligent men who do not belong to any church ; in fact, 
nearly everybody. Col. R. G. Ingersoll, who is called the great infi- 
del, in speaking to a jury in a case which involved the manufacture 
of acohol, used the following eloquent language : 

" I am aware that there is a prejudice against any man engaged 
in the manufacture of alcohol. I believe from the time it issues 
from the coiled and poisoned worm in the distillery until it empties 
into the hell of death, dishonor and crime, that it dishonors every- 
body who touches it — from its source to where it ends. I do not 
believe anybody can contemplate the subject without becoming 
prejudiced against the liquor crime. All we have to do, gentlemen, 
is to think of the wrecks on either side of the stream, of the sui- 
cides, of the insanity, of the poverty, of the ignorance, of the des- 
titution, of the little children tugging at the faded and withered 
breast, of weeping and despairing wives asking for bread, of the 
men of genius it has wrecked — the men struggling with imaginary 
serpents produced by the devilish thing ! And when you think of 
the jails, of the almshouses, of the asylums, of the prisons, of the 
scaffolds upon either bank, I do not wondor that every thoughtful man 
is prejudiced against the damned stuff called alcohol ! Intemper- 
ance cuts down youth in its vigor, manhood in its strength, age in its 
weakness ! — it breaks the father's heart, bereaves the doting mother, 
extinguishes natural affection, erases conjugal love, blots out filial 
attachment, blights parental hope, and brings down weary age in 
sorrow to the grave ! It produces weakness, not strength ; sickness, 
not health ; death, not life. It makes wives widows, children or- 
phans, fathers fiends, and all of them paupers and beggars ! It 
feeds rheumatism, nurses gout, welcomes epidemics, invites cholera, 
imports pestilences, and embraces consumption ! It covers the land 
with idleness, misery and crime! It fills your jails, supplies your 
almshouses, and demands your asylums ! It crowds your peniten- 
tiaries and furnishes victims to your scaffolds ! It engenders con- 
troversies, fosters quarrels, and cherishes riots ! It is the life-blood 
of the gambler, the element of the burglar, the prop of the high- 
wayman, and the support of the midnight incendiary ! It counte- 
nances the liar, respects the thief, esteems the blasphemer ! It vio- 
lates obligations, reverences fraud, and honors infamy ! It deforms 
benevolence, hates love, scorns virtue, and slanders innocence ! It 
incites the father to butcher his helpless offspring, helps the husband 
to massacre his wife, and the child to grind the parricidal ax! It 
burns up man, consumes woman ; desolates and detests life ; curses 
God, despises heaven ! It suborns witnesses, nurses perjury, de- 
files the iury-box and stains the judicial ermine ! It bribes votes, 



6 Pearls. 

disqualifies voters, corrupts elections, pollutes our institutions, and 
endangers governments ! It degrades the citizen, debases the legis- 
lator, dishonors the statesman and disarms the patriot ! It brings 
shame, not honor ; terror, not safety ; despair, not hope ; misery, 
not happiness ; and with the malevolence of a fiend it calmly sur- 
veys its frightful desolation, and, unsatisfied with havoc, it poisons 
felicity, kills peace, ruins morals, blights confidence, slays reputa- 
tion and wipes out national honor! then curses the world and laughs 
at its ruin. It does all that and more: It murders the soul ! It is 
the sum of all villainies, the father of all crimes, the mother of all 
abominations, the devil's best friend, and man's worst enemy ! " 



THE APARTMENTS OF THE SOUL. 

There are apartments to the Soul which have a glorious outlook ; 
from whose windows you can see across the River of Death into 
the. shining city beyond ; but how often are these neglected for the 
lower ones, which have earthward-looking windows. There is the 
apartment of Veneration ; its ceilings are frescoed with angels, and 
all exquisite carvings adorn its walls ; but spider webs cover the 
angel ceiling, and dust has settled on the delicate mouldings. 
The man does not abide there. The door of Conscience has rusted 
so it cannot be opened. Hope has but one downward looking 
window, and faith and worship are cold and cheerless; all these 
are shut up in most soul houses. In lower apartments you shall 
hear in some riot and wassail; for the passions never keep Lent, 
but are always holding carnival ; and in others, sighs and lamen- 
tations of wounded souls ; and in others the moanings of disappoint- 
ed ambition, and in others, bickerings and strifes ; while in others 
there are sleep and stupidity. 

Ah ! most men live in these wretched apartments and never mount 
to those airy ones where they can hold commerce with God and 
angels. Now Christ comes to light up the house -from foundation to 
roof-tree with the glory of God. He knocks at the door, and when 
it is opened to him he enters and gives to every room order and 
beauty, and the voice of song and wondrous fragrance from his 
robes, which have borrowed perfume from every flower that grows 
in the Celestial Gardens. Who will open the door. 



If a bell were hung in heaven which the angels swing whenever a 
man was lost, how incessantly would it toll in days of prosperity for 
men gone down, for honor lost, for integrity lost, and for manhood 
lost beyond recall ! But in times of disaster the sounds would inter- 
mit ; and the angels looking down would say : " He that findeth his 
life shall lose it ; but he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." 



Pearls. 



I marvel how a woman, with her need of love, with her sensitive 
yearning, clasping nature, can look into the face of the Lord Jesus, 
and not put her arms about His neck and tell Him with gushing 
love, that she commits herself, body and soul, into His sacred 
keeping. 



Men openly and with the exercise of their reason persist in break- 
ing and violating the civil law, which is always open before their 
eyes, and in the face of the penalty which inevitably follows. But 
they more flagrantly and with the exercise of less reason violate 
God's moral law, which is even more authoritaitve and infinitely 
more important than any civil law in existence. If the Sermon 
on the Mount were written in golden letters that would extend 
across the vaulted skies of heaven, men would hang a screen be- 
tween it and their eyes and persist in violating its command of 
infinite moment. 



To every soul of any elevation that is left untrammeled by undue 
influences and by views and opinions adverse to truth, Christ's 
teachings and life mean royalty of manhood — a manhood that can 
face furious anger, brave storms of persecution, suffer cruel and 
unjust accusations, and submit to the infidelity of professed friends, 
and which can assert its patience, disinterestedness, gentleness, for- 
bearance and love when the waves of misfortune, backed by the 
murky threats of the scowling tempest, are ready to sweep over it 
The resources for such a manhood must come from Christ's Sermon 
on the Mount. We must go back to it and learn and practice the 
beatitudes that come from the lips of Him who spake as never man 
spake. The advent of Christ marks the area of this manhood, 
which towers in royalty and beauty far above any conception o; 
manhood that human thought and ingenuity ever reached up to ; h 
is a manhood centered in Christ, and has for its foundation divine 
attributes. It partakes of all the elements that signalize and crown 
as divine the history of Christ's life when upon earth. It is not to 
be found anywhere out of Christ. Every element and feature of ii 
draws its vitality and life from Christ, the fountain-head. He is the 
true vine ; the branches which thickly cluster around him on every 
side are centered in him and draw their support from Him. If the 
Bible teaches one thing more than another in unmistakable terms, 
it is that to be a Christian is to be like Christ ; it is to build life upon 
that broad and noble, foundation which he laid — which involves 
disinterestedness, fidelity, charity, patience, meekness, love, and all 
the countless attributes that cluster around His life of self-denial 



8 Pearls. 

and self-sacrifice. , This is regeneration— this is a divine miracle ; it 
is in this transformation of man's life that the grace of God sur- 
passes all finite conception, and will throughout eternity be the 
theme of adoring praises among the shining hosts that silently 
tread the courts of heaven. But, says the hard reasoner, I cannot 
in my rude blundering incarnate spiritual truths ; to me they are as 
the vapor that rises in the atmosphere. I cannot believe anything 
that requires the exercise of faith ; to me such things are as the 
picture the poet limns with beautiful words ; but there is no sub- 
stance there, and consequently no reality. Men's lives are like the 
pattern made by the weaver's loom. They enlist in business, and 
with something of a definite idea of what life is to be to them, 
they lay their plots and plans, and as they look along the avenue 
of life before them, they behold many pleasant sights — the rippling 
brook, the garden of fragrant flowers, and the shade of the ever- 
green trees, everything is promising ; the loom is at work ; the 
shuttles are uninterruptedly flying back and forth ; and a beautiful 
pattern is being woven. But finally at some stage in life — perhaps 
early, perhaps at middle life, or even in old age — an interruption 
comes — a thread breaks, and its effect in the pattern is soon dis- 
covered. A moment later and another breaks, and then another ; 
the rest, being weakened begin to snap here and there. Eventually 
the shuttles refuse to move to and fro, and the pattern stops. 
Suspicion is aroused — your character is at stake ; friendship is test- 
ed only to show the perfidy of professed friends ; they scatter in all 
directions ; they who should stand by faithful among the faithless 
throng flew from you to escape danger from the debris of your frag- 
ile structure as it comes crumbling, like some ancient ruin, to the 
earth. Your mistakes are flaunted in your face as acts of villainy ; 
creditors pursue you like hungry wolves ; friends either desert you 
or are turned to foes. 

Here is a test for religion. Who can wade the turbulant waters 
of adversity that are to sweep away your fortunes, serenely and 
without a murmur, unless sustained by the grace of God and the 
infinite love of a concious present Saviour ? It is the quickening 
influence of divine love that sustains the Christian as he wades the 
dark waters of trouble and watches the drifting debris of a scattered 
hope carried on the waves of misfortune out of sight, and witness 
on either shore the infidelity and ingratitude of professed friends. 
An act of ingratitude may not be a very great crime in itself, but 
it acts as a silent key to unlock the door of the human heart, which 
exposes all the morbid anatomy of a distempered life. It acts as a 
secret spring, whose mission it is to unveil and expose the life of 
those who have allowed their moral standard to droop so low that 
it must inevitably be stained by the fetid impurities that rise from 
md surround so low a plane of manhood. Selfishness and ingrat- 



Pearls. 9 

itude like ghastly scars, disfigure the lives of those who are their 
victims. But let us speak words tempered with forbearance and 
charity. Perhaps nearest you in your associations may be some 
who have thus erred, but if so they are those who have broken 
their cup at the well of salvation, and while the fountain of eternal 
love and purity still flows they cannot stoop to drink. How few, if 
perhaps any, are there who are living lives out of Christ, who are 
not entangled in the meshes of error ; who on almost every question 
that involves principle, are hopelessly wrong ; whose minds are 
^j distempered with crude error, and whose dispositions are morbid 
*and morose ! They are continually pursuing hideous phantoms, and 
hugging ungainly delusions ; they are living in an atmosphere that 
is poisoned with the malaria of sin, indifference and infidelity. 
How apparent is the momentous fact that God, in the exercise of 
His infinite wisdom, never intended that men should choose their 
own pathways regardless of divine guidance, and face life's battles 
without divine help ! It is a law of divine economy that men can 
not go right who reject God and refuse to be guided by His counsel. 
The scales of error and moral blindness drop only from the eyes 
of those who have undergone conversion. The guardian hand of 
Christ's Spirit alone can lead men into the ways of truth and duty 
and give them grace to walk in them. Men are not able to engage 
in hand-to-hand struggles with the adversaries of their souls, 
brave life's battles, face its conflicts and ultimately come off con- 
querors, unless encircled and sustained by the everlasting arms of 
Christ, and are living so near Him in their daily walk that they cart 
hear the footsteps of guardian angels. Those who are thus sustain- 
ed need not despair, even though the blinding snows of misfortune 
fall thick and fast around them, and they wake only to discover the 
fragile hope of this world's success lying in ruins at their feet. 



A BEAUTIFUL THOUGHT. 

When the summer of youth is slowly wasting away on the night- 
fall of age, and the shadow of the path becomes deeper and life 
wears to its close, it is pleasant to look through the yista of time 
upon the sorrows and felicities of our earlier years. If we have had 
a home to shelter and hearts to rejoice with us, and friends have 
gathered about our fireside, the rough places of wayfaring will have 
been worn and smoothed away in the twilight of life, and many dark 
spots we have passed through will grow brighter and more beautiful. 
Happy indeed are those whose intercourse with the world has not 
changed the tone of their holier feeling, or broken those musical: 
chords of the heart, whose vibrations are so melodious, so tender, 
and so touching in the evening of their lives. 



io Pearls. 

MORAL STANDARDS. 

There is involved in the deliberate act of deception, falsifying-, 
or misrepresentation, all the degradation of moral principle and 
character that belong to a life of overt sin, and crime. One delib- 
erate sin of whatever nature it may be, essentially lowers the whole 
moral standard of a man. There is underlying every sin a principle 
infinitely worse than the sin itself. It is the silent motive that lies 
back of every action that makes it either praiseworthy or infamous. 
In vain do we affect a sublime unconsciousness as to the part the 
the moral motive and impulse that lies back of every action plays. 
The motive that inspires the painter, makes his production an ob- 
ject of contempt or admiration, the principle interwoven in the poet's 
theme, makes his production either sublime or degrading. 

There should be perpetually above every action and deed, a lofty 
ideal of grandeur and beauty; the highest and noblest motives should 
lie back of every thought, deed, and action in life. But there is lit" 
tie pleasure in contrasting what this world is with what it should be. 
Crude error sways its sceptre above and around us ; the way of right, 
of truth and duty is trammeled by morbid and distempered views 
and teachings. Over and against the highest aspirations, aims and 
objects of the Patriot, the Philanthrophist and the Christian is array- 
ed the influence of the Sceptic, the Infidel and the Atheist, together 
with a myriad throng of enemies, of truth and of mankind. 



INTEGRITY. 

Remember there are two sides to all questions : one is the side of 
justice and truth, the other of wrong and falsehood. If you choose 
the side of justice and truth, notwithstanding the opposition and 
persecution you may meet with, triumphant victory will eventually 
crown your life. The earth with all its instrumentalities will cast its 
influence with you, and God is pledged to vouchsafe to you success. 

If you are so unfortunate as to choose the side of wrong and in- 
justice, you will not be able to attain success, even though you im- 
peril your immortal soul; because God, in his infinite wisdom, de- 
signed that justice and truth alone should triumph. Act from prin- 
ciple and d > not underestimate principle, for if you are ever to ac- 
complish anything in this world principle must be the anchor of your 
life. If you disregard principle, you will more certainly than fate 
bring upon yourself digrace, shame, and sorrow as the penalty. A 
Divine Providence has so nicely adjusted things in this world, that 
it is impossible for any person to do wrong without paying a penalty. 
Surely, whoever sows to the wind will reap the whirlwind in all its 
fury and anger. 



Pearls. i i 

THE CONFLICT OF BELIEFS. 

Doubtless the greatest and most unanswerable problem in life is 
the almost equal division of mens' views, opinions, and beliefs upon 
every question and issue of life, even those questions and issues 
that relate to purity, justice, and truth, and that affect both this life 
and the life boyond. There is not a question in the whole economy 
of human experience, ranging from the loftiest, grandest and 
purest ideal conception of conduct, duty, and principle of the 
.Christian and spiritual man, down to the lowest material thoughts 
and standards of the indifferent and infidel man, upon which there 
is not division, followed by subdivision, until identity of views and 
beliefs is almost lost when an attempt is made to trace and dis- 
tinguish one from another by their close resembling hues and 
shades. 

There is no question, belief, or faith, or of the incomputable 
phases of such, from the greatest and sublimest down to the most 
infinitestimally small and trivial, upon which men are not almost 
equally divided. 

Upon the questions of government, involving the empires and 
republics of the nations of the earth, down to the most insignificant 
and technical questions among individual men, there is a ceaseless 
and insufferable clashing of views, opinions, beliefs, and faiths. Not 
all the inharmonious music of ten thousand different instruments 
playing different tunes would afford a parallel to the discordant and. 
clashing views and beliefs of the human race. They are as incom- 
putable as the sands strewn upon the sea shore, or as the glittering- 
stars which beyond telescopic vision revel in the illimitable space that: 
separates earth from heaven. We may look above and beyond the 
tempest of life to where there is Heaven and peace, where the 
choral songs of angels will break upon our ears, above the music of 
which, if the one name, Jesus, is heard it will sound sweeter than 
all the combined harmony of that blessed throng. But while there 
is unfeigned pleasure in looking above and beyond this scene of 
discord and conflict, there can be seen, by those who have faith to 
look, signs and evidences forshadowing a harmonizing of faiths andi 
beliefs, and a reconciliation of the clashing elements m the social,, 
religious, and political systems here on earth. Tha radiant glow 
of gospel truths is fast puncturing daylight through the false and! 
superstitious systems and institutions of religion,,, that should' have 
lived and perished in the dark ages of the world'. 

A change of opinions and views relative to revealed religion 
marks the advent and swift passage of each succeeding year of the 
present age. Men are beginning to think rightly. Superstitions, 
which have so long blinded men, are dropping like scales from their 



12 Pearls. 

eyes, and infidelity is fast losing its iron grasp. Every human 
organization and institution in the world, except the Church and 
the Public School, is tottering to the earth like the corrupt thrones 
of Oriental dynasties. The swiftly flowing current of Christian 
progress and enlightenment, if its progress is undisturbed by the 
hand of Providence, will, inside of fifty years, have swept every 
human institution except the Church into the ocean of oblivion. 

We cannot forecast the future, but one thing we are sure of, the 
wheels of progress are not going to stop and it has ceased to be a 
problem as to whether the Church is to be overturned or not ; if it! 
is not to be overturned, then it is divine ; if divine, then it is to 
lead the world to triumphant victory. 

Let us take up again the question of conflicting views : it is both 
painful and interesting to study and trace the variety of views and 
beliefs of men, and see their close approach to each other. For 
instance, orthodoxy and infidelity represent the two extremes of 
beliefs. Were it not for the intermediate schisms and phases of 
beliefs, which mingle and commingle between these two extremes, 
and which vary their hues just enough to render discrimination from 
their many rivals possible, the two great questions, religion and 
infidelity, would soon come to an issue, when the right of supremacy 
would be determined ; but ranging all the way between orthodoxy 
and extreme infidelity, there is to be found a manifold variety of 
different beliefs and faiths, and which sustain an almost indiscrimi- 
nate relation to each other ; each respective belief taking on just 
enough color to prevent its identification with some other be- 
lief or faith. Let us take that faith which sustains the nearest re- 
lations to orthodoxy, viz : Universalism. Granting that out of the 
endless variety that go to make up the great realm of belief, that 
there is but one that is unquestionably right, and that all others are 
aliens and abstracts, and that they are wrong just to the extent that 
they differ from the orthodox faith, then who ever holds to uni- 
versalismis just as surely wrong as the most extreme infidel. There 
is not to be found a Christian who sustains a vital union with Christ, 
and, looking from his standpoint, but that knows that universalism 
is essentially wrong ; for every vital and fundamental belief and 
doctrine culled from Christ's own teachings, and sustained by the 
orthodox believer, the Universalists have a corresponding one 
shaded and colored so artistically that discrimination is sometimes 
baffled ; yet there is a very vital difference between these systems of 
faith. The Universalists do not stand firmly upon any doctrine of 
the bible. They cling tenaciously to the very edge and outskirts of 
all the essential beliefs that Christ so plainly taught. They falsely 
decide the question of universal salvation and kindred questions, 
through the use of technicalities, and the misinterpretation and mis- 



Pearls. i 



o 



construction of language. Universalism is a shield for a life of indiff- 
erence ; it is subtle infidelity, intrenched behind gospel truths. 

Such is the length and breadth of the Unversalist faith (which 
above all other faiths is the nearest allied to the Christian's faith) 
when measured by the orthordox rule, which is the only true and 
unfaltering measure ; with it the faiths, beliefs, and doctrines of 
every race and nation, is yet to be measured. The orthodox be- 
liever stands on an eminence reared infinitely higher than that of 
any other believer. As the true artist has perpetually hovering 
over him an ideal of the beautiful image of his picture, which by 
far transcends in reality, what his production will be when finished ; 
so the true Christian, who has the conscious realization that Christ's 
spirit in its gentleness, sweetness, and purity, if directing, leading 
and teaching him, has a conception of truth, conduct, and duty 
that infinitely transcends any ideal of the same that the indifferent 
world can grasp or attain. It is infinitely more obligatory upon 
Christians than upon any other class to think right, and to act right, 
and under the influence and teaching of divine impulse ; if they 
doubt they are damned. 

The ponderous volume of conflicting views and beliefs of the world 
is an interminable medley of contradictions and inconsistencies, 
which the race has industriously culled from the labyrinth of a fanci- 
ful imagination and a distempered reason ; while the intrinsically 
sweet and precious truths of a revealed religion have been swallowed 
up in the maelstrom of bickering, discord and divison. 

Every positive belief has a negative side ; every absolute truth 
can be divided into a multiplicity of phases. It is by reason of this 
that those fundamental beliefs that underlie the great social, political 
and religious systems of mankind are honey-combed by a manifold 
variety of different views, doctrines and beliefs, which involve men in 
a mazy labyrinth of perpetual doubt and discord. Like a company vis- 
iting the Mammoth Cave, and ere their journey through its silent and , 
darkened chasms and vaults is half finished, their oil gives out and 
their lamps refuse to guide their feet ; dismayed by their misfortune, 
they scatter and wander to and fro through the unexplored chambers 
of that subterranean dungeon, until hunger, cold and despair over- 
take them, and they lie down one by one, pillowing their heads 
upon the damp stones, and perish. Thus men, who reject the bible 
as a guide to their feet, follow the avenues of their complex imagi- 
nation and reason, until they perish and are lost in the maze and 
shadow of doubt and infidelity. 

A proportion of the race, larger than the number of professed 
Christians, are avowed infidels. A much larger proportion of the 
race cling to some fanatical and superstitous religion which em- 
bodies in it the very essence of moral blindness. A still larger 



J 4 Pearls. 

proportion are indifferent to the questions of religion and moral 
responsibility. Out of the countless throng of Christ's followers, 
ranging somewhere between one and two-thirds, are nothing more 
than nominal believers, who have stumbled in their blindness over 
the threshold of experience and failed to find Christ. 

Notwithstanding all this, the coming ages slope toward a royal 
termination of all things earthly. Christ's spirit is brooding over 
the world, and is enlightening the darkened souls of unbelieving 
men. A millennial day is dawning; its twilight is breaking upon the 
world ; the race is progressing away from the foils and snares of false 
doctrines, beliefs, and religions, while the religion of our Lord and 
Saviour is towering above the range of infidelity. 

More progress has been made within the last century than has 
been made before during all the preceding ages of the world's his- 
tory. With each succeeding year indicating an imcomputable incre- 
ment, and with the ratio of increase increasing each year beyond 
comparison, where is it to stop if it is not to culminate in perfection ? 

The progress of the last century is but a prelude to a perfect day 
and the foreshadowing of the fulfilling of Christ's prophecy ; and 
not all the influence of all the races and nations of the earth com- 
bined can turn the tide that is flowing on to perfection, under Divine 
surveillance, while back of it lies the will and impulse of God, who 
knows no variableness nor shadow of turning. 



SOCIAL DRINKING MORALLY WRONG. 

If the sale of intoxicating liquors is morally wrong, then it is 
morally wrong to license such a business ; and whoever gives his 
sanction and vote to license such a traffic is as guilty of the vio- 
lation of moral principle as the liquor dealer who stands behind 
the bar and deals out the subtle poison. 

The inevitable drift and tendency of social drinking is to moral 
degradation. To teach men that drinking is morally wrong, is to 
reform them ; but to do this is to strike at the very heart of some 
of the social customs of the world — the theaters with their innum- 
erable immoral features and tendencies, and the giddy ball-room 
dance follow in this train, and are schools for immoral teaching 
and training. But the most formidable and distressing of all social 
customs is the New Year's day banquet. New Year's calling is the 
infernal innovation and custom of modern society. The custom of 
spreading the New Year's table with intoxicating drinks for young 
people is" an infamous and infernal temptation and snare. The re- 
sult of this un-American custom has been to increase largely the 
great army of wretched inebriates. There is (when viewed from amor- 
al standpoint) involved in this custom of spreading the New Year's 



Pearls. 15 

table with ardent spirits all the sin, infamy, degradation, shame, and 
crime, that belong to the drunkard's life. The distressing and 
formidable results of the custom belong as much to those who 
countenance and encourage it as it does to the victim who, through 
its influence, commences a career which can result in nothing less 
than sin, disgrace, and death. 

It is the principle involved, and that prompts one to take a part in 
such a henious and debasing custom as social drinking, that merits 
unrestrained censure ; there is involved in the very act of taking a 
single glass the principle and cause that necessitates a drunkard's 
hell. So far as moral principles are involved, an occasional social 
glass brings a man to the level of a drunkard wallowing in the gut- 
ter. The difference between the disgrace and infamy is in the degree, 
and not in the quality of the sin or violation of moral and physical 
law. There is involved in the act of taking one glass of strong drink 
all the debasement, sin, and infamy that belong to an inebriate's 
life and death, so far as the principle itself is called into question. 



CONVERSION. 

The spiritual change called conversion is essentially a miracle, 
and one of the highest order. It is a serious and undecided quest- 
ion whether one can live a spiritual life who has not experienced 
this change in a way that the incident itself is one of the most 
illustrious as well as the greatest events in their lives. Paul's con- 
version was the most extraordinary of any on record in the Bible 
or in history, and yet that radiancy of divine light that broke 
upon and around him is but typical of what every sinner experi- 
ences who, after days of agonizing prayer, awakes to the conscious 
realization that that peace which passeth all understanding has 
taken possession of his soul, and that he has received a spiritual 
impetus that has sent him so far on his way in a divine life that he 
never rebounds back from whence he started. There i's nothing 
that comes within the range of human experience that is so tangible 
as the soul's conversion ; and if Paul's conversion was more tan- 
gible than that of every person who is truly converted in this day 
and age, it is by reason of its being one that was attended by a 
material display of divine light and power which, at that time, 
and ranging back through all preceding ages, was no uncommon 
occurence. 

Similar miracles mark the whole traditional record of the world. 
Previous to that period the overtures of angels were familiar inci- 
dents in Bible history ; angelic messengers came and went to and 
fro bearing tidings, sometimes of peace and yet more often of 
wrath — messages of divine import, such as were never entrusted to 



1 6 Pearls. 

mortal care. Such were God's means of communication with men; 
and yet those miracles which sparkle with divine light and beauty — 
the narration of which fills the soul with a sense of grandeur and 
sublimity, and tinges the whole sacred history with a luster of 
divinity, were no more real than the subtle and invisible influence and 
experience which is so familiar to every true Christian ; that experi- 
ence which brings the soul in contact with divine influence and favor, 
which links the human and divine, and which quickens the soul 
with divine light and love. 

The radiant light and glory that enveloped the apostle Paul 
could not be more tangible, real, and divine than the communion 
and conscious relationship of every regenerated soul with Christ as 
a personal Saviour. There is not the least evidence, either in the 
Scriptures or in human experience, to support an assumption that 
the human soul can worm its way into a spiritual or regenerated 
state of existence. A regenerated soul is the noblest thing in 
the world. Spiritual birth is a boon to be prized infinitely above 
everything else on earth ; and it is not unreasonable to expect that 
throes and pains should characterize such a birth. 1 hat soul 
which reaches up to the divine, and establishes relationship with 
Christ, finds Him only by stumbling and blundering over the dan- 
gerous path and through the mist and shadows of experience, until 
it reaches the prairie and sunshine beyond. Contact with the wild 
animals of the forest, contests with formidable beasts in the arena, 
or facing the dread enemy on the battle field, is a moderate ordeal 
compared with the experience of conversion that has often been 
related by Christians. This is the extreme in one direction. Con- 
trast this with the generally acknowledged and deplorable fact that 
ranging somewhere from one to two thirds of the church member- 
ship are composed of nominal Christians, and can give no plausible 
and consistent record or account of their conversion, who know but 
little, if anything, at the end of a professional Christian life of 
spirituality and religion as a soul experience, and who have no hope ■ 
beyond that of faith. Compare these extremes and you have a* 
serious and irreconcilable medley. Which extreme will you choose ? 
It cannot but resolve itself into this, that spiritual life, growth, and 
experience are the essential conditions and features of religion. 
Hope, belief, and faith, so far from being saving elements in relig- 
ion, are but tinkling cymbals ; and any belief that hinges on any or 
all of these is a heresy. Salvation is not found in living a moral 
life ; it is not bought by the profuse bestowal of charity ; it is not 
secured by living within the pale of the church ; it is not found by 
clinging tenaciously through life to doctrines, ordinances, and dog- 
mas. A life of prayer may be one of hollow mockery, and may land 
one anywhere else but in heaven. It is a spiritual life that saves 



Pearls. 17 

— it is the infinite grace of God that saves ; it is a radiant experience 
which Christ gives to every one whom He accepts and acknowl- 
edges as His own. What is the record of the conversion of those 
attempting to live a Christian life, but who know nothing of its 
inward experience ? Was their conversion an ordeal and the great- 
est event of their lives, or was it of so small moment and so little 
importance that no record was made of it? It is a bold assumpt- 
ion for anyone to suppose that he is converted, unless it was of such 
a nature as to leave an unmistakable impress ; it is astill bolder as* 
sumption to suppose that conversion does not forcibly and radi- 
cally change one's whole disposition, character and life. Growth 
in grace is the best and only infallible test of conversion. It is 
time for any person to suspect their religion when they find that 
they are not growing in grace. Nothing is more noticeable in the 
record of the teachings of Christ and the apostles than the blindness 
of men and their inability to understand or form a true conception 
of what spiritual life meant, or tb appropriate it to themselves. 
This failing is attributable to the fact that seeking and obtaining 
spiritual life is an experience. It is groping in the darkness and 
through shadow until Christ is found, and until the radiant light of 
the spiritual life breaks upon our eyes. The ways of experience 
are no less difficult now than in those early days. Converson is the 
trying ordeal of the soul in finding Christ and finding one's self. 
A spiritual life is the highest plane on which it is possible for a per- 
son to live ; it is virtually living above temptation, sin and the world ; 
and whoever, in their attempts to live a spiritual life find themselves 
breaking one or more of either the small or great commands of 
Christ may, with all propriety, ask themselves if they have not made 
a mistake and climbled up some other way, instead of entering by 
the door ; for whoever willfully breaks one of Christ's commands is 
guilty of them all. Besides, it maybe safely laid down as a criterion 
that Christ's love constrains the true Christian from taking a false 
step. If they truly love Christ they will not inflict pain upon Him, 
4 or crucify Him anew, by doing what they know to be wrong and sin- 
ful ; but how many there are whom, it is evident, have made this 
mistake, who make their conscience their touchstone in deciding this 
question, and who point to it and say, "It is the voice of God and 
I will obey it and follow wherever it leads the way." They set it 
up as an infallible Pope and obey its injunctions and conform to its 
whims, when, so far from its being the voice of God in this particu- 
lar case, it is the mask behind which Satan is doing his fine line 
work which he does not wish the world to detect. Conscience is a 
fortress behind which the world entrenches many of its most subtle 
and dangerous sins. No one is prepared to live a spiritual life until he 
has broken the fetters with which this tyrant has bound him. How 



18 Pearls. 

many men who have been slaves to conscience have been led by it 
to tread into the dust every high and noble ideal standard of honor, 
conduct, and duty, rather than acknowledge that they were being led 
by a blind guide, and at the same time relatively elevate themselves 
in their own estimation ! They would sooner pull down the stars 
out of heaven and trample them beneath their feet than acknowl- 
edge their mistake. Such are the extremes to which conscience 
will suffer its victims to go. 

Men of the world, who are neither Christians nor professed Christ- 
ians, will allow their moral standard of conduct and duty to fall so 
low that it will dip into the sulphuric lake below them if they can 
only get the sanction of their consciences ; and then, with a non- 
chalance which inflicts pain upon those who realize the danger in 
which they stand, boldly assert that they are not afraid to appear in 
judgmental God's tribunal, having followed the dictates of their con- 
sciences and having done what they believed to. be conscientiously 
right. These are some of the subtle, seductive and fatal results of be- 
ing led by the conscience instead of by the spirit of a risen, living, lov- 
ing Saviour. Identifying conscience with the voice of God is a decep- 
tion which cannot be too greatly magnified for the personal safety of 
all who accept it as such. In saying that whatever is conscientious- 
ly right is essentially right, and that it is the highest tribunal before 
which we can decide what is right or wrong, depends upon whether 
it has been lowered from its primeval standard. It depends upon 
whether it has ever been stifled or deadened by sin. Conscience, 
like the soul, intellect, and every other faculty of the human anat- 
omy, was made perfect, and would serve as an infallible guide if it 
could only be kept up to that standard to which a Divine Creator 
keyed it ; it is a fallible and unsafe guide just in the proportion to 
which it is subject to vacillation and degradation. 

The noblest speciman of a man, who sets up his conscience for 
his guide and standard, cannot be living more than half way up the 
scale of moral elevation between the avowed sinner and the spirit- 
ual man. Nothing but the grace of God can free the soul from the 
natural depravity which inevitably tinges it. Conscience is the un- 
regenerated soul's torch and guide, and is ten thousand times better 
than nothing ; but to the regenerate soul the spirit of Christ is an 
infinitely better guide, and with such a soul, one is never substituted 
for the other. Conscience has often interposed between the sinner 
and Christ, and has successfully perverted the very object that 
many have sought to attain. They have, in an unsuspected moment, 
listened to the voice of conscience and turned back hefore Christ 
was found. The saddest and most lamentable mistake that can 
possibly force itself upon our attention is that of failing to enter the 
door that leads to Christ. The tap at the door for admission into 



Pearls. 19 

the conscious presence of a loving Saviour was too gentle to be 
heard by Him. He did not recognize it as the knocking of one 
who was indeed seeking entrance into the hallowed presence of the 
world's Redeemer ; and the victim of misapprehension goes on 
through life unconsciously bearing the burden of his sins, until the 
weight of them sinks him into eternal ruin. Language is not 
subject to enough of variations to justify any one in the belief that 
the entrance to the fountain of spiritual life will be opened for a 
gentle tap, which to Christ may mean nothing. The door of pos- 
sibility to spiritual life is closed in the faces of those only who fail 
to strive to enter in. 



THE DARING OF THE INFIDEL. 

The rashest thing that can possibly force itself upon our attention 
is the daring and defiant denial by infidels and sceptics that 
religious experience is what Christians claim it to be : that experi- 
ence that comes radient down through the atmosphere of heaven 
and lodges in the souls of men, they declare it to be only an en- 
thusiastic feeling, the result of excitement. Experience is the one 
vital element in spiritual life, and must precede an intelligent faith 
in God. The nature of the faith the believer has in God before 
conversion is very different from that of the believer who has ex- 
perienced converson. Many scales of error must fall from the eyes 
of the most intelligent and enlightened nominal believers before 
they can see as those see who have experienced the purifying and 
enlightening influence of Divine love. 

Those who have had this experience can understand that things 
seen are temporal and things unseen are eternal : While infidels 
drape the unseen things of heaven and eternity in mystery, and 
declare that we can be certain about those things only that we can 
see with our eyes, and handle with our hands. There hangs above 
the Christian's faith, and back of his experience, all the radiant 
glory of heaven, there breaks perpetually upon his- eyes a vision of 
the bewildering multitude of angels, who from the foundation of 
eternity have been gathering around God's throne in heaven. In 
sight of the true Christians, who look beyond this life, are joys 
and pleasures transcendentally higher, purer and sweeter than this 
world can yield, while celestial rays of light from the windows of 
their mansion in heaven fall upon their pathways to guide their 
erring feet. To them, Christ is a brother, and God is a father, 
sustaining these relations of kinship to the Divine ; and with these 



20 Pearls. 

radiant prospects of eternal life before them, all of which depends 
upon their sincerity in their belief and faith. Why should infidels 
doubt their sincerity, when to them their belief is verified by exper- 
ience, and is more sacred to them than life itself. 

In a spiritual life, conversion is the starting point ; with it comes 
an experience that turns darkness into light, and clears away the 
mist and darkness that envelope the eyes of the unbeliever. Infi- 
dels can never understand the nature of a spiritual life, or under- 
stand religion to be a tangible reality until they have undergone 
this experience ; yet they do not so much as believe that the dec- 
larations made by Christians relative to their experience is true, 
much less have they an intelligent faith with which to seek and 
accept Christ. Without faith there is no such a thing as pleasing 
God, or finding Christ. 

Infidels, without ever making a test of religion by which to 
determine whether it is true or false, disbelieve and reject it. 

The Christian's knowledge and conception of Christ comes by 
stumbling and blundering and groping in the darkness through the 
tangled vale of experience ; but how much better it is to pass 
through such an ordeal in seeking and finding. Christ and finding 
ones's self than it is to be lost in the midnight shadows cast by the 
sombre clouds of indifference and infidelity. 

The difficulty and feeling of uncertainty that disturbs and har- 
rows the minds of those who wish to seek and find Christ and learn 
of the sweet and mysterious joys that belong to Christian life, is the 
great and serious obstruction and obstacle in the way of the world's 
conversion. Or, in other words, the difficulty almost every individ- 
ual experiences in coming into that state of mind and' feeling when 
they will resolve in the face of all that hinders them to begin a 
Christian life, has been an insurmountable hindrance in the way of the 
world's conversion to Christ. The difficulty in breaking up base 
indifference which is scarcely more respectable than avowed infidelity 
stands directly in the way of the progress of Christ's kingdom here 
on earth. How many have perished in sight of the ever flowing 
fountain, where the immortal soul can assuage its thirst. How 
many have famished from hunger in their attempts to live upon the 
husks that fall from this world's tables, when right before them is 
their Father's table, spread with the richest manna from heaven^ all 
because of indifference in appropriating to themselves the promises 
of eternal life. In the matter of personal religion everything 
depends upon ourselves, as well as everything upon Christ. No one 
would become a Christian without the divine influence of the Holy 
Spirit, any more than a bud would become a blossom without the 
influence of the sun, yet personal religion is the result of per- 
sonal choice. 



Pearls. 21 

THE PERIL OF LIFE'S VOYAGE. 

How fateful and sad it is that either indifference or unbelief 
should, like driftwood lie across the very current of our lives ; de- 
feating every possible hope of heaven and immortal joys. How- 
sad it is that young people raptured with the world and in love with 
all around them in life should carelessly drift upon either of these 
currents until, in a moment when least expected, they dash upon the 
unseen and fateful shoal and perish; for a wreck upon the shoals 
of either shore, or in mid-ocean must mark the sad and tragic end 
of every life. Yet, while nothing is more certain, and while there is 
no truth better known perhaps to many who may read these solemn 
words of entreaty and warning, how lightly will they be regarded, 
and how quickly the impression will be effaced ; and the voyagers, 
enamored with life, their hearts beating with the impulse ol joy, 
with every fleeting moment jeweled with love and happiness, will be 
eagerly wafted on the breeze that kisses the sails, until the tempest 
becomes too strong, and in the dark and wierd night their vessel 
will be dashed to pieces on the cruel rocks. 

Oh ! where in all" the world is there a heart aglow with the love 
of Christ, and feeling the force of this sad truth, that does not utter 
a wail of bitter anguish over their fruitless efforts to win some loved 
one to Christ. How sad it is, when after our best efforts we fail to 
change the lives of our dear and cherished friends, with whom we 
should have the greatest influence. Oh, how can we break up 
indifference ; for it is this more than unbelief, to which the myriad 
voyagers over the ocean of life to eternity are anchored. How sad 
it is to witness those who are wholly unprepared drift upon the 
uncertain stream of time out into the dark ocean of eternity. Yet 
life is even more serious than death : they contrast very much as 
do living issues with dead ones ; and a life filled with mistakes, sin 
and sorrow, is more sad than death at any time or under any circum- 
stances. What makes death inexpressibly sad is that nineteen out of 
twenty of the people into whose faces we look as we meet them in the 
social circle or in the counting house or upon the street have not 
that preparation requisite for heaven and its peaceful fruitions. 
How many lives at their close must be likened to the mariner's 
night watch and struggle at the helm of his ship during the angry 
storm only to be lost forever in the maelstrom just at the moment 
he expected to see the first gleam of morning dawn. 

While by reflection upon a life of misfortune, sin, and sorrows we 
can find no other words with which to express our thoughts than those 
intended to excite a feeling of melancholy, it is infinitely more sad 
to reflect upon the nonchalance of the indifferent, while sailing life's 
voyage clinging to some delusive hope, stifling convictions, de- 
ferring duty, until at length, in an unguarded moment, their vessel 



22 Pearls. 

is dashed to pieces amid the breakers of the farther shore, and they 
awake from their sleep of indifference only to hear the waves close 
in upon them as they sink forever and perish without a gleam of 
hope. The day makes haste when this unbidden and sad event and 
change will come to all. How many who read these solemn words 
will be ready and watching ? 



THE PROBLEM OF INFIDELITY. 

Human thought vibrates through the whole range between ex- 
treme precision and extreme laxity. From the great arc of thought 
there swings a pendulum from one extreme to the other. Great 
resistance is met with by those who seek to limit the range of this 
swinging pendulum. There are those who would have us believe 
that anarchy would be the sequence of the harmonizing and concil- 
iation of the thoughts, views, and opinions of the world ; others 
would have us believe that lifelessness would be the fateful result of 
such a conciliation. Both views are extragavant and wide of the 
mark. The swinging of this pendulum from the extreme of Pur- 
itanism to the extreme of Infidelity is one of the noticeable and sad 
features of American progress. It is one of the most important 
features of the social world that this' problem should be solved ; and 
we should not lose sight of the fact that we are amenable to a 
benificent Creator for the solution we give. Religion and infidelity 
constitute the two most extraordinary extremes with which the 
world has to deal. Infidelity, however prevalent it may be, is 
unnatural, and is the outgrowth of misapprehensions, misconstruct- 
ions, and misinterpretations of thoughts, principles, and language ; 
it is the result of biased, dwarfed, and distorted conceptions of 
truth, immortality, and of God. Infidelity, in its subtle way, poi- 
sons every soul with which it comes in contact ; it stifles every 
noble and spontaneous impulse of life, and distorts every divine- 
implanted principle which should adorn and enrich the human 
character, and finally consigns its victims to eternal death. It is 
for these reasons that the Christian people should meet this dread 
enemy face to face, and each one individually, in the strength of 
God, do what they can to disarm this formidible foe of its weapons 
of destruction. 

One of the most noticeable features of infidelity is that it confounds 
the professor with the things professed. Out of the countless 
numbers of Christ's followers they select isolated and exceptional 
cases of moral humbugs and hypocrites, and make these test cases 
by identifying them with those that serve Christ, from pure, honest, 
and sincere motives. The insincere and unfaithful follower of 
Christ is to those who are sincere and faithful what the exceptional 



Pearls. 2$ 

cases are to every rule and practice of theoretical and practical life. 
Christ, through His words, teachings, and sufferings, offered Himself 
to the world as a personal Saviour, and ranging down through every 
age since His crucifixion, countless numbers have accepted Him as 
such, and have testified to this experience everywhere and under al- 
most every condition and circumstance of life; yet infidels have 
steadfastly and persistently refused to accept the' testimony of those 
on whom it is infinitely more obligatory to bear true witness than 
upon any other class. And this volume of testimony has proven of 
but little avail in shaking the unbelief of the infidel world ; they 
wilfully close their eyes against the most plausible interpretation of 
divine mercy, and fail to realize that, in the economy of divine rule, 
mercy is the central figure, and justice only incidental. Divine mercy 
can be best understood and determined by citation to the fact that 
Christ through His Spirit stands between a crown of life and the 
flames of perdition, and incessently pleads with the sinner, through 
the whole range of a wayward and wicked life, to accept Him, and 
often follows him to his deathbed in the fain hope that His oiler of 
salvation will not be rejected in the moment of the soul's imminent 
and certain peril. It is this inevitable conviction that makes it es- 
sentially true that, so far from it being difficult to believe in Christ 
and accept Him, it requires the incessant moral resistance of one's 
whole life to prevent them from accepting Him. Any person is an 
object of commisseration who attempts to compare and measure 
divine justice by human justice ; there is scarcely a shade of resem- 
blance to be traced between human justice where every offense is 
punished and mercy is only incidental, and the long-suffering sin- 
ner seeking the Saviour, who will grant forgiveness and salvation in 
a moment to a sinner at the end of a life of open sin and infamy. 
There is in the whole dark category of crime, sin', and disobedience, 
but one that God will not in a twinkling forever forgive and forget. 
and that is for rejecting salvation through Christ, His dearly beloved 
Son. Wilfully rejecting Christ is the most criminally guilty act that 
ever stained and blemished a human soul. It is for this one act, 
and not for a perverse life mingled with darkling crimes and deeds 
of infamy, that the soul is to be subject to eternal death ; and noth- 
ing is more morally certain than that no one will ever find their way 
to the region of eternal suffering unless they have had an opportunity 
of knowing Christ and accepting Him, and have wilfully rejected 
and refused Him. No one will ever be cast away or lost until rivers 
of divine love have been wasted upon them. Such is infinite mercy. 
And whatever may be the state of future punishment, and whoever 
may be the unfortunate ones to be subjected to such a fate, and 
however much the features and conditions of such a state as we 
understand them may conllict with human conceptions of justice, 



24 Pearls. 

one thing is settled beyond question : it is that the conditions of 
such a punishment will be divinely and infinitely just and it is pre- 
mature to take exceptions in this life to the conditions of eternal 
suffering and retribution in the future life. We can easily conform 
to the conditions and rulings of infinite justice and mercy, but it is 
beyond our power to subject them to changes and modifications so 
that they will not conflict with our wishes and opinions. Yet this 
is the most conspicuous failing of the human race. Along every 
conceivable and possible avenue and pathway leading from the 
varied and complex imagination, we find people pursuingt [he 
most apparent shadows and phantoms, making life a frightful night- 
mare by inconsistent dealing with the common experience and 
issues of life. We find men assailing the Church with bitter invec- 
tive, as if it was the scorpion of society, and rejecting Christ and 
salvation through His name as if the very atmosphere in which a 
Christian lived was impregnated with the poison of the upas tree ; 
rejecting and casting the Bible aside like an insane pilot on a found- 
ering ship, amid the breakers of the ocean, casting his compass 
overboard, when the truth is, if infidels and skeptics could see in a 
true light their distorted perverted and deformed minds, they 
would flee from them as from a hideous skeleton invested with a 
demon's spirit. Yet no alternative is furnished for one who holds 
such views. There can be no possible palliation or excuse for one 
who employs the energy, talents, and moral force of their whole 
life in a fanatic effort to hinder and suppress divine revelation and 
truth. 

The Bible is the world's chart and compass to protect us from 
the shoals as we go bounding over the ocean of life on our voyage 
to eternity, and whoever rejects it will drift upon the merciless 
waves, and they will find themselves stranded, wrecked, and eternal- 
ly lost. On the next plane below the infidel, and drifting on the 
same stream and on the same current that is to bear them on to 
destruction, are the partial believers, who, by some incomprehen- 
sible process of reasoning, arrive at the conclusion that part of 
Christ's miracles were divine and part human. This view is even 
more inconsistent than open infidelity, as some forbearance and 
patience can be exercised toward one who fails to find any traces of 
divinity in the Bible, and who even repudiates it as a history, but it 
is a plausible and self-evident impossibity for any one to consistent- 
ly believe part of Christ's teachings and miracles to be divine and 
the rest human. His miracles were gems that radiantly sparkle 
with divine light, or else they are nothing. 

The true Christian sustains the relation to Christ of kinship. 
Christ is to them a conscious, present, and personal Saviour; to 
them the towering mountain ranges which they behold, the surging 



Pearls. 25 

ocean over which they voyage from one continent to another, the 
earth on which they tread, the stars and planets that glitter in the 
heavens above them, sink away from view as tangible realities when 
compared with the personal relationship the true heirs of salvation 
sustain to the risen Saviour. 

Here is the stumbling stone over which the infidel world has 
fallen. Here is the whirlpool of misapprehension that has swallow- 
ed up the unbelievers through all ages. The solution to the prob- 
lem of infidelity is found in the fact that it is unfortunately an 
essential impossibility for any one to accept or understand religion 
to be a tangible reality until after they have sustained relations to 
Christ as a personal Saviour. Infidels drape faith so deep in 
mystery that they lose sight of it entirely, and then cut loose from 
the last vestige of possible hope and drift from a safe mooring into 
the swift eddy of destruction. Notwithstanding the yearning, 
brooding, and restraining influence of the Divine Spirit, countless 
myriads have pursued this phantom to the brink of life, and then 
plunged so deep into the abyss of eternal ruin that the splash 
has never been heard ; and yet while infidels refuse to accept a 
belief of faith, and clamor for something tangible that they can 
handle with their hands and see with their eyes, they can be seen 
upon every hand crystalizing and subliming material scenes, works 
of art, beautifying deeds of heroism or the acts of benevolence into 
principles and thought, which are as invisible to their eyes as the 
inhabitants of the supernal world. The want of something tan- 
gible is the key note to infidel argument, It is morally certain that 
if there was located upon the earth a literal and material precipice, 
over which the souls of men at the rate of thirty millions annually 
were plunging into eternity, part shackled and fettered by sin, led 
by demons through the portals of the infernal regions, part clad in 
blood-washed garments guided by angelic messengers through the 
1 golden gates into the heavenly courts of the new Jerusalem, doubt- 
less infidels of every class, without ceremony, would make a pil- 
grimage to this visible material scene of mortal dissolution, and 
find upon witnessing it a remedy for their unbelief. While to a 
belief of faith, and to the invisible influence and relation of Christ's 
Spirit to the human soul, men stand as an almost inaccessible 
fortress; they blindly persist in refusing to have relations with 
anything they can not demonstrate to be material and tangible. 
The conversion of the soul is the greatest ordeal of one's life only 
by reason of its being an experience which links the human with the 
divine. Experience is the very soil in which a Christian life is sown. 
Conversion is stumbling over the threshold of experience into the 
arms of Christ. 



26 Pearls. 

REPUBLICANISM. 

There is a sense in which the gift of prophecy or infallible 
judgment (as in this article we prefer to use these as synonymous 
terms) is true. It is true along the line of truth and equity. It is 
true and useful in human affairs when used to determine the result 
of cause and effect. It is true when used for the purpose of de- 
ciding the question as to whether Right, Justice, and Truth shall 
ultimately triumph over Crime, Injustice, and Wrong. There was 
a prophecy uttered and proclaimed long before the medieval ages 
that resounded over the plains of Judea and round about Bethle- 
hem, and was heard everywhere that tradition marks the foot-steps 
of our Saviour at the dawn of the Christian era — a prophecy which 
is divinely true, and which rings with tremulous sweetness to-day 
in the ears of all who believe it. It is the prophecy of the milleni- 
al day, or, in other words, that day of visible divine rule upon the 
earth, when righteousness and truth shall be universal. Whoever 
is living to-day in the effulgent glow of divine influence and power, 
and witnessing on their right and on their left the advance and 
approach of the completion of the reform tide that is to revolution- 
ize human government, socially, politically, and spiritually, and 
fails to understand its import and destiny, if not wilfully blind was 
born blind, and is waiting for something more tangible than literal 
facts. 

Any person who, in watching the evolution and progress of the 
human race, sees displayed in it the hand of an All-wise Creator, 
and realizes that every element, fiber, and condition associated with 
human affairs is tending to flow into that channel which is to carry 
us on to perfection, and that it is God's plighted intention and 
promise to establish and perfect a government among His people 
based on equity, justice, and truth, is a prophet, and need not be 
ashamed of his calling. 

In the lace of these statements then, whatever is right will 
triumph, and whatever is wrong will fail. If this be true then how 
necessarily false must be the predictions of the press from many 
quarters, that Republicanism is on the wane, that the day for the 
dissolution of the Republican party is near at hand, and that follow- 
ing in the wake of every similar organization it must necessarily 
suffer defeat and disintegration. But all such predictions are made 
without consideration and regard for the principles upon which it is 
founded and for the just reasons upon which its perpetuity is based. 
We can conceive of no ruling more consistent with human and 
divine laws and government than that Right, Justice, and Truth 
shall triumph over all obstacles and hindrances. The Republican 
party represents in the broadest and most truthful sense the intelli- 
gence, patriotism, and religion of our country. The Republican 



Pearls. 2j 

party has a record purchased by the blood of Its patriots, offered as 
a sacrifice, not as violators, but as defenders of their liberty. Its 
glorious record of four years of brave and daring deeds will last 
through all generations. Though its prestige has been marred and 
crippled by eight years of misrule and unskilled administration, it 
will yet recover all it has lost, and assert its former power and 
significance. The success of the Republican party is not depend- 
ent and does not hinge on local and abstract issues and causes, but 
will succeed by reason of its enterprise and honest purposes. It 
represents the political progress of modern times. Its destiny is 
subject to the inevitable result of every institution that is based on 
the noblest principles and has for its aim the noblest purposes. It 
is following in the retinue, of every institution that has succeeded 
by reason of righteous purposes and aims. It has for its foundation 
and support principles that cannot be supplanted by anything better, 
and it will yet teach the world a lesson of experience by drawing to 
itself those that # love purity, justice, and righteousness. It is the 
refuge for the Christian people of this country to day, and in the 
grand future that awaits this country the supporters of the Repub- 
lican party will be the representatives of its progress and advance- 
ment. That power wielded by the ignorant and unscrupulous 
classes of our land will gradually be supplanted by a higher order 
of intelligence and nobler principles. How can we expect a right- 
eous administration of laws and government unless we have right- 
eras office-holders ? And how can we expect righteous office- hold- 
ers unless those entrusted with the privilege of franchise are 
righteous? The administration of laws and government — Munici- 
pal, State, and National — will be purified and ennobled just in 
proportion to the increase of intelligence, moral principles, and 
religion ; and all spasmodic attempts to reform a nation, upon any 
other basis will be as bubbles rising here and there on the surface, 
to burst and pass into obscurity. Moral impulses and principles 
are yet to rule the world — and that with a grandeur that will cause 
us to tremble at its beauty and significance. No intellect can 
conceive of the sublime features to be revealed by a nation free to 
use to the best advantage every instrumentality placed within its 
reach. As a nation we virtually began our existence one hundred 
years ago. The brilliant and glorious successes achieved during 
that time are truly marvellous ; but how much sublimer will the 
record be when another hundred years shall have passed ! The 
position we have gained is surely worth something by way of 
experience in fighting the battle of Progress in the future, but we 
must be careful how we arrogate to ourselves the praise and honor 
of the achievements already won, and let us not forget that we are 
being led by an All-wise and beneficent Creator. The progress of 



28 Pearls. 

the world to-day points to that long foretold millennial, when right- 
eousness shall rule the earth. Every development and advance 
that awakens our surprise has lain buried in an intellectual vault 
from eternity, and is brought to life only at the bidding of Hirr 
who conceived and placed it there. That evolution which char 
acterizes and follows in the train of our efforts, intellectually, mor 
ally, and politically, is but the unfolding and continued creation oi 
Divine organization. God's guiding hand is leading us through 
the wilderness into the Promised Land beyond ; in other words, the 
advance of the world by which the radiant light of intelligence and 
Christianity is illiuminating the earth means that the latter-day 
glory is coming rapidly. This work of Divine completion demands 
the individual assistance of all who profess the name of the Son of 
man, for it is through human instrumentalities that this great work 
is to be accomplished. Yet it is not within the range of human 
power to turn the influence which under divine guidance is to usher 
in a perfect day. It rs the duty then of those who, have this faith 
to place their hands as those of little children in the great hand of 
God. He will lead us through the perils of life, and sustain and 
guide us in the paths of progress. 

With what fatuity of intellect and vision do we forecast the fu- 
ture? Who dares to day, after having witnessed the developments 
of the last half century, set any limit to what will be unfolded in the 
next half century ? Forty years ago the sagacious Charles Dickens 
said that it was in accordance with divine and human law, and in 
keeping with the experience and history of the world that when a 
people had reached a certain elevation in the progress of art and 
enlightenment by education, for them to retrograde to whence they 
had started, and predicted when that change would take place in 
this country. But how signally he failed in that prediction ! And 
his failure is attributable to the fatal mistake of supposing that 
progress and enlightenment were subject to abnormal rule, and that 
human instead of divine power and influence controlled and govern- 
ed the unfolding of God's own creation. Everything in this world 
that has Right, Truth, and Justice for its foundation is ordained and 
destined of God for a high and noble purpose, and can never 
culminate in defeat. That banner which bears for its insignia the 
Cross of Christ will yet wave triumphantly over every nation of the 
earth. Wherever it floats to-day the noblest and best representa- 
tives of the most enlightened races are helping to bear it on to 
victory. The Redeemer's kingdom is towering in its grandeur and 
beauty far above any temporal kingdom that has ever been reared. 

The annals of the human race have no parallel to offer in contrast 
with the kingdom of love, thought, and moral impulses over which 
Christ reigns and rules for His own glory. Reader have you enlist- 



Pearls. 29 

ed under this banner? If not, be faithful to yourself in accepting 
the privilege of working for the advancement of Christ's kingdom. 
Remember that if you reject that privilege your life at its close will 
but represent a blank page in the history of earth's deeds written, 
in heaven. 



AUTHORSHIP. 

To write a good article the writer should be deeply in earnest 
and in love with his theme. It is scarcely possible to write an 
article worth reading unless the writer's mind is kindled with 
enthusiasm over his subject. It is barely possible to distinguish 
right from wrong unless one's thoughts are colored with the glow of 
enthusiasm. Whoever would write well must put the best there is 
in them in their article. 

The ideal author is one who can write a hundred volumes, or if 
not a hundred volumes a hundred paragraphs or sentences of a few 
lines each which will prove so interesting and instructive as to be 
worth reading- and re reading-. But we are not unconscious of how 
much the organization and construction of the brain has to do with 
the quality of literary production. No amount of mental endeavor 
or effort can be made a substitute for native talent in a literary 
pursuit. Victor Hugo recently made at once one of the wisest and 
most witty remarks of the present century : upon being asked if it 
was not very difficult to write good poetry he replied " no, that it 
was either very easy or else it was utterly impossible. ' Yet no 
moderately intelligent person need despair of writing well until 
they discover that they are a failure in literary undertakings at the 
close of three, four or five years of careful and faithful application 
in the endeavor to cultivate taste and talent for the work. Proba- 
ply ninety-nine out of one hundred of the people we meet in every- 
day life are wholly unconscious of the many gifts and excellencies of 
mind they possess and whieh might by culture and use be made to 
shine like aurora lights. There seems to be no good reason why 
we should not all be authors, or in other words as a means of self- 
culture and improvement every person should cultivate a love and 
taste for writing ; and should do a given amount of vigorous think- 
ing for themselves ; and if the commencing and pursuing of a 
literary pursuit with no other purpose or aim in view than the 
promotion of this proves a failure, it will not be fruitless. 

There is scarcely anyone living an active life and taking chances 
in this world whose life is so uneventful but that if they would day 
by day write up their own experience, the beatings and impulses of 
their own hearts, the thoughts and inspirations of their own minds 
could fill a volume with lore as pathetic, as. thrilling, as exciting, as 



30 Pearls, 

mournful and as sad, as wierd and as strange as was ever woven 
in the warp and woof of fact or fiction in literature. For it is the 
language of experience that produces the finest impressions. Ex- 
perience is an inexhaustible fountain, at which the whole world can 
drink, as its everflowing crystal waters wash over the white shining 
stones in the stream of daily life. Again, thoughts that flow in the 
current of human sympathy will ever awaken interest, and be read 
with pleasure. This will necessarily lead to the use of emotional 
language, without which element comparatively all books and 
papers are dull and uninteresting, and are scarcely worth reading.. 

Convictions are prime essentials to good authorship. Convictions 
are as indispensible as ideas, and vice versa. A man without con- 
victions is like a " reed shaken by the wind ; " a man without ideas 
is like the fig tree, "leaves but no fruit." Language is a third 
consideration. Whoever has convictions and ideas will never be at 
a loss for suitable language with which to express them. 

But lastly and best of all is an intuition by which to deter- 
mine right from wrong. There is nothing in this world more grand 
and noble than to be right upon, every question with which we have 
to deal in life. There is but one way to attain to this accomplish- 
ment. A fountain of truth flows more perpetually than the fragrant 
flowers bloom beneath the tropic sun ; go with your golden cup and 
drink at the fountain-head.; go sit at the feet of the Divine Master, 
and learn of Him, who spake as never man spake. 



UNITY. 

The rendering of perfect obedience to God's laws is an open 
question. The clashing of arguments upon this one question will 
doubtless be heard as long as people inhabit the earth. But do not 
people disagree upon every theme and question of life ? Do not a 
manifold variety of views, thoughts and principles differentiate 
throughout the whole economy of the intellectual realm ? Are not 
the different views, phases and conditions of life as diversified as 
the sands on the sea-shore, or as the leaves of the forest, or as the 
hues and fragrance of the flowers that cover the prairie ? But are 
we to understand by reason ol the illimitable diversity of the 
pebbles upon the seashore, or by reason of the endless variety of 
the waves continuously racing over their track on the boundless 
ocean in majestic beauty and grandeur, or by reason of the infinite 
multiplicity of variations in the physical creation of the universe, 
that the ever-living minds of men are to differ upon every question 
of life ? Is there an endless hue, shade and variation to - every truth 
linked with human experience, even that experience which asso- 



Pearls. 31 

ciates us with the thought of eternal life, that experience which is 
to prepare the immortal soul for its dwelling place in the presence 
of its Maker ? Is there not some untrammeled path cleared and 
hedged by the hand of a benificent Creator in which the burdened 
soul is free to turn in its pursuit of heaven ? Is it one of the divine- 
implanted and ordained regulations and rulings in God's, economy 
in dealing with men that they are to differ upon the questions, purity,, 
virtue, and truth ? Are we, until the divinely foretold consummation 
of this earth shall have come to pass,, to play upon an endless 
variety of instruments? Is not this discordant and hideous concert 
to cease until the race is swept into eternity? Are we, until the 
consummation of all things earthly, to be subjected to this ceaseless 
noise of innumerable and inharmonious instruments in the social, 
political, and religious world ? Is not this only a hideous nightmare 
of imperfection in the passage of human experience ? Is unity 
possible, not in that sense that the world's thoughts are to turn and 
flow into one channel, but in that sense that truth is a divine attri- 
bute and that it is not subject to variations ? Our answer is, yes ; 
it will be the universal result of a more advanced stage of life's 
progress ;. it is possible along the line of divine truth as Christ 
taught it to the world. It will follow as the result of Christian 
conduct and experience flowing into one channel, which state and 
condition in the world's progress will be reached only when the 
erroneous views and misapprehensions of men shall be universally 
supplanted by truth and Christian conduct, as was taught and 
exhibited in the life of the world's Saviour ; it will be the result of 
a higher, purer and nobler Christian standard than has yet been 
attained ; it will be only when there is less dogma and insipid 
theology and more of the spirit and power of Christ as a personal 
Saviour is woven into the Christian, s experience, conduct* and duty. 
Divine grace alone can influence and turn the souls of men into the 
only channel through which unity is possible. Whoever in the 
jiast ages and history of Christian progress has attained to this 
experience has reached the highest standard, though the purer, 
truer and sweeter conception of Christ as a personal Saviour was 
never so universal and never so unhindered by dogma and priest- 
craft as at the present day. Men are Christian by virtue of accept- 
ing Christ and being accepted by Him. The Christian's magna 
charta for salvation is found in the essential act of accepting Christ 
as a risen, living and personal Saviour. Nothing either on earth or 
in heaven is freer from the least taint or tinge of superstition, 
priestcraft or dogmatism than the soul that finds salvation through 
grace in Christ. Such salvation is the very incarnation of purity. 
And churches, the organization of which is in the main human 
invention and the outgrowth of human demands and ne.cessities s 



32 Pearls. 

and is divine mainly to that extent that they are associated with 
divine work and are the instrumentalities used for the advance of 
Christ's kingdom on earth, are subject to change. Does the short 
period of time that has intervened since the Reformation tide and 
since church organizations, as they stand to day, afford us any 
substantial and incontrovertible evidence that the unity of them at 
some advanced future day is not possible ? This unity is the 
inevitable tendency and drift of the churches as seen from the 
standpoint of public opinion at the present day, and will be effected 
only when churches have rid themselves of the last vestige o/i 
heresies, or in other words, abstract isolated and disconnected theo- 
logical views and tenets. He is a dwarfed Christian who is not 
larger than his church and his creed. Why does the scholar and 
student leave the college and seminary if not for the reason that he 
has grown larger than the institution that has held him through 
many years of assiduous study ? Churches are valuable, indispen- 
sible and sacred in that they educate and develope men in spiritual 
things, and are the means of grace of bringing men up into a 
royal manhood in Christ, The unity of the church, however, is not 
the object labored for, and is not the wish of theologians at the 
present day only to a meagre extent ; and if this is to be the 
inevitable result it will not be effected without a struggle, for the 
churches individually will be found the resisting power and influence 
to such a coalition. But in the event of any revolution in church 
government it is largely the most plausible view to expect a union 
of all orthodox churches. There is hanging above and before 
the eyes of the human race a mystic veil which must be pushed 
back, step by step, as it moves forward in its slow and uncertain 
progress and unfolding ; to the Christian who lives by faith there is 
to be seen in the foreground of human progress an invisible temple, 
chaste and pure, clothed in royal ordination, towering in sublime 
beauty above everything earthly, transcendently rich in adornment 
and architecture, its glittering spires reaching higher toward heaven 
than human vision can soar ; along the highways and byways 
leading to this temple are innumerable throngs, composed of every 
tribe, nation, color, class and condition, seeking its courts, singing 
as they go in strains sweet and tremulous the new song of Moses 
and the Lamb ; at last it is reached — it is the temple of the ever- 
living God, the refuge of the pilgrim while the storms of life are 
breaking above and around him on his way from earth to heaven. 
The central figure of this temple is Jesus, the Babe of Bethlehem, 
the risen Saviour, the Prince of Peace, the Son of man — who when 
lifted up was to draw all men unto Him. This temple is the central 
figure of the universe. The eyes of the world are fixed upon it, 
The Son of man is still within its courts. From it is radiating 



Pearls. 



33 



through all the recesses, from the nearest to the most distant 
mountains, valleys and forests of the earth, that influence that is 
swiftly drawing the remnants of a burdened and weary race to it for 
refuge, peace and rest. This temple and kingdom consists of the 
aggregate of souls that love Christ, the Lord and Saviour, in 
sincerity. This temple is wherever a soul seeks and holds com- 
munion with its Maker. Religion is found alone in the living souls 
of men. The only true religion known is that which is centered 
in love to Christ. All others are essentially false. Church- 
es are but cold, barren walls, inside of which is confusion, and 
oftentimes discord ; it is a good place to enjoy religion, but it is 
almost the poorest place in the world to seek it. No place on earth 
compares with the silent and unsuspected closet. No sanctuary on 
earth is so fragrant with ineffible associations as the sequestered 
place where a soul first learns a Saviour's love and hears the chant 
of reconciliation to its Maker. The church is but fairly entered 
upon its mission of saving souls ; it is but emerging from darkness 
into twilight. Is it not true that it is slumbering over the embers 
of a lost race — not lost so much by reason of its apathy as by 
reason of misapplied, impractical and non-specific efforts. What 
Christ's kingdom stands in the greatest need of is, that all its 
individual members should be champions in its behalf and labor for 
its advancement — champions that can and will speak glowing words 
flaming with love — that will move the souls with which they come 
in contact ; for every time a soul is moved by a noble and divine 
impulse it is brought nearer the kingdom of heaven. Reader, you 
are called to a distinction between a life of indifference and infidelity 
to a life of faith in the merits of Christ and salvation by grace. 
You are not wanted as a nominal believer and follower ; if 
you cannot, in the act of coming, cast every pleasure and indul- 
gence that is savored and tinged with sin at the foot of the cross, 
to be eternally forsaken by you — which the all-sufficent grace of 
Christ will give you grace to do — then you are not wanted. It is 
both for the good of you and the cause of Christ that you stay 
away. And to the nominal believer, whose efforts in the direction 
of a Christian life have been fruitless because of misapprehension — . 
they who are cautiously drawing a line of distinction with their 
consciences between good and evil, and then approaching it from 
the Christian side on tiptoe, peeping over on the opposite side in 
their efforts to see how far they can transgress and trample beneath 
their feet divine principles and commands with impunity — we have 
but to say that your duty is to go back to the beginning and come 
again by way of consecration. A true religious life is one that 
sparkles with divine light and love. It is exchanging the tattered and 
crimson garments of sin for the royal robe of grace and salvation 
through Christ Jesus. 



34 Pearls. 

DECORATION DAY. 

An Editorial upon Decoration Day, including an extract Jrom 

General Sherman s Speech at Booth 's Theater, New 

York City, May 30, 1878. 



More than one century has intervened since the seed was sown 
from which sprung the feudal strife so memorable in our nation's 
history, while but thirteen years have elapsed since the clashing ar- 
mies of the North and South broke down the brazen partition which 
severed the Union, and estranged the sympathies of brother from 
brother in their native land. With the recurrence of the 30th of 
May, men and women, with hearts stirred with patriotism and hands 
prompted by motives of love and fidelity to the fallen heroes slum- 
bering in the national cemeteries, gather together to weave garlands 
and strew flowers upon their graves. There is interwoven in the 
ceremony of scattering the freshest and best of spring flowers — her- 
alds of the Maker's beauty and purity — upon the graves of the 
dead soldiers a sentiment that, while tempered by melancholy recol- 
lections, is yet full of beauty and joy, and which is growing with the 
ages. The past with its sad history cannot be blotted out or for- 
gotten, yet the votive wreath has been laid upon the graves of those 
who staked and lost their lives upon the defeated side and who 
slumber by the side of the conquerer in the bivouac of the dead. 
But while we would like to dwell upon this feature of the theme, we 
cannot forget that garlands can be woven with beautiful words 
fraught with patriotism and wisdom. But few, if perhaps any but 
Sherman, scattered fresh chaplet leaves fragrant with sentiment that 
did not fade and wither away ere the ceremonies of the day had 
been completed. The ceremonies at Booth's Theatre in this great 
city, in which General Sherman participated, were savored with 
much that was sublime and beautiful, Mr. Sherman speaks forth 
the words of truth and soberness. Read his own words : 

" Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen — The grand pageant we have witnessed to- 
day in the streets of this busy mart of commerce, and the handsome assemblage of peo- 
ple that now fills this hall to overflowing, demonstrate unmistakably that the public inter- 
est in the events of 1861-65 did not die out with the heroes and martyrs of that epoch. 
We know that all over this broad land this memorial day has been dedicated to the beau- 
tiful custom of decorating with earth's fairest and freshest flowers the graves of the 
patriotic men who died that we might possess in peace a united country and a Government 
worth having. The fragrance of these flowers, rising to heaven from such altars, cannot 
but prove an acceptable peace-offering at the throne of Him who holds in his hands the 
destiny of all people. 

" There are such things as abstract right and abstract wrong, and when history is writ- 
ten human actions must take their place in one or the other category. We claim that in 
the great civil war we of the National Union Army were right and our adversaries wrong ; 
and no special pleading, no excuses, no personal motives, however pure and specious, 
can change this verdict of the war. 

" I would not for the world revive the angry passions of that period of time, nor do I 
question the personal motives of our antagonists ; but I do and ever will contest the 
proposition that we should tear from the history of our country the pages which record 



Pearls. 35 

the great events from i860 to 1865 ; for they should stand there forever as a warning to 
those who come after us — who* from passion, self-interest, or any human cause or pretext 
whatever, may undertake to destroy this Government by violence. No ! the deeds of our 
dead heroes are already recorded in the great book of Time, and marble and brass will 
continue to record them long after we are dead and gone. In the language of our great 
leader General Grant, we will never apologize for the deeds done in 1861-65, but will treas- 
ure up their memory, and on every suitable occasion, as long as life lasts, will present 
them anew to the youth of this country as noble examples of heroism and patriotism ; for 
they saved this nation from absolute annihilation, or, at the very least, from a long period 
of intestine war and anarchy." 

Mr. Sherman's speech, from the beginning to its close, as might- 
have been expected, had the true ring of old-time patriotism and 
loyalty. But, alas ! how slow we are in gathering lessons of eter- 
nal truth from the sad experience of the days of rebellion ! How 
slow we are in seeing the hand of an all-wise God accomplishing a 
work of infinite importance and magnitude ! He who to-day reflect- 
ing on the past fails to see displayed in the war of the rebellion and 
its subsequent results the guiding and loving hand of a beneficient 
Creator, leading as it were His chosen people through a wilderness 
into a promised land of peaceful fruition, has fought the war in vain 
and for no purpose. The record of the sacrifice of half a million 
of brave and daring heroes upon the field of carnage to ransom a 
race from the thraldom of bondage, though draped in melancholy 
memories, marks a sublime and glorious passage in the experience 
of our national life and progress. Yet it but faintly symbolizes the 
willing: sacrifice of the world's Saviour whom Roman cowardice and 
Jewish malice nailed to the cross upon Calvary, and which will in the 
event of God's own time ransom the whole world from the thrall- 
dom of sin and suffering. 



IRREVERSIBLENESS OF LAW. 

The absolute irreversibleness of Natural Law is a theme of infi- 
nite moment, Regardless of the events and changes that take 
place during the lifetime of a generation of people, we can always 
depend upon the constant working of Nature's Laws, upon the sun 
rising and setting without one second's variation from its wonted 
time upon its yearly revolutions, producing and reproducing its sea- 
sons with invariable constancy ; upon the unfailing law of evapora- 
tion, and the return of the water upon the earth ; upon the flow and 
ebb of the tides, moving to celestial bodies ; upon the continued 
constancy of the law of gravitation, holding every clod and every 
rock and every tree upon earth, as it whirls around in its daily 
revolutions. Upon this central certainty of Natural Law civilization 
depends. Who does not know that Natural Laws will go on their 
courses producing the same results they have always produced ; 



2)6 Pearls. 

and who does not depend upon the constancy of Natural Laws. 
Who doubts but that seed time and harvest time will come again in 
their appointed time. The profound and miraculous workings of Nat- 
ural Laws are startling to contemplate, and are enough to excite a 
deep sense of awe and reverence in the minds of all who set them- 
selves to this task. 

We have in the diurnal revolution of this world the only exhibition 
of perpetual motion this world has ever witnessed. The very idea 
and law of constancy is derived from the perfect and perpetual work- 
ing of Natural Law. This is a grand theme of itself and might be 
lengthened out indefinitely, but we only wish to use it in this con- 
nection to illustrate one, if possible, more grand and awe-inspiring. 
Over against the existence and operations of Natural Laws is the 
divine revelation of Spiritual Laws, their exactions and obligations 
and the certain fearful looking for the execution of the penalty when 
they are violated. If we have in the irreversibleness of the Natural 
Laws an exhibition and illustration of the irreversibleness of Spirit- 
ual Laws, what must the harvest for eternity be ? Christ two thous- 
and years ago declared that He was the light of the world. Has not 
this declaration been verified to the letter? Can we trace one gleam 
or ray of modern enlightenment and civilization to any other source 
than to Him ? Believe or not believe his miracles, place what stress 
you will upon His claims of divinity, His life of self sacrifice and self 
denial, His death on the the cross and resurrection, from that time 
dates the grandest and most successful revolution the world has 
ever known. Science would have us believe that it is the light of the 
world, and that it is to lead the world on to its destiny ; but at best, 
what a feeble, flickering light it throws upon the world ; and be- 
sides, has it not lighted its torch at the altars of Christianity. ? 

The progress of Christ's Kingdom is exciting the interest of the 
nations of the world. Never before were His claims of divinity so 
honored as in the present age. Nations are almost daily entering His 
courts and bowing at His throne owning His, right to reign King of 
Kings. His teachings are read, honored and revered by the peo- 
ple of every land. The Bible is fast becoming the text book of 
the world, and infidels are abandoning their hope of overthrowing it. 
The Bible fares with the assaults of the infidels and skeptics very 
much as does the Alpine Peaks with the riven lightning that clashes 
about them, and the angry storm clouds that burst upon them, 
when the storm is past they stand unscathed and unharmed in the 
serene Italian air ; or very much as does the shore of a continent 
stand the beating of the ocean's surfs. For centuries the Bible has 
stood the fierce and repeated attacks of infidels, but like the shore 
it lasts and will in eternal serenity last. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



021 181 029 4 



I 



